Difficulties in the descriptive epidemiology of school accidents.

It is now generally accepted that the epidemiologic approach to causes of accidents is one of the most promising methods for overcoming the difficulties in the study of accidents. 1-5) According to this view , data of 1,841 accidental injuries which occurred among primary school children in Kyoto City from April, 1963 until, March, 1964 have been epidemiologically studied. The data used are reports of school accidents submitted to the Japanese School Safety Association. In Japan all accidental deaths and injuries of primary school children which occur during school hours or on the way to and from school and which are treated at the expense of more than 100 yen are to be reported to the Japanese School Safety Association. Information about the frequency and/or distribution of school accidents is no doubt valuable. The great number of school accidents makes people recognize the importance of accidents as a problem of school health, while the distribution of school accidents tells us what is the most important problem in school accidents. However, when the most challenging object of the descriptive epidemiology of accidents, that is the formulation of hypotheses regarding causes of accidents, comes into discussion, our study on accidents of primary school children has suggested that there are several difficulties which prevent the accomplishment of this object. In this paper these difficulties will be discussed. Hopefully, this discussion will serve to make future epidemiologic approaches to school accidents more fruitful.